The Noble Bereans

Rev. Mark C. Alvis, Union Congregational Church — Lent II, March 4, 2007

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As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible (Acts 17:10-17 NIV).

A pastor and two of his friends from the congregation went bear hunting, and all three saw a bear at exactly the same moment. They raised their guns, fired at the same time and the bear the fell. Then came the discussion about who shot the bear. The mystery deepened as they searched for bullet holes and couldn’t find any. Finally, one of the men examined the head of the bear and whistled in amazement. He then stated, “I guess the pastor got him.” “Why’s that?” the second parishioner objected. “Well, it went in one ear out the other.”

With that said, are you ready for this morning’s message? We will be focusing on Acts 17:10-15, but I wanted to fire one final shot at Acts 17:9. If you remember — and you probably don’t — the city officials in Thessalonica forced Jason and the other Christian brothers to post bond before they were released from custody. What does posting bond mean? Most likely, it means they had to promise not to let Paul or Silas back into their homes. If any of them were caught associating with Paul or Silas in Thessalonica, they would be socked with a huge fine. Because of this bad policy, Paul and Silas were spirited out of town that night.

Was this fair and just treatment for these Christians, or was this an example of expediency and bad law enforcement? This was clearly unjust. Is it a big deal when civil leaders enact and carry out unjust policies and laws? Paul answers this question in a letter he wrote to the believers at Thessalonica not too long after these events took place, “But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you — certainly I, Paul, did, again and again — but Satan stopped us” (I Thessalonians 2:17-18).

The tool Satan used to stop Paul and Silas from coming back to Thessalonica to teach God’s Word was most likely the bond that Jason and the others had to post. The Apostle Paul believed that bad laws come from Satan’s domain of darkness. Let’s take up the story in Acts 17:10-12. These verses explain what happened to Paul and Silas once this bond was posted:

As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea [about 45 miles southwest of Thessalonica]. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

Paul taught the same truths at Berea as he did at Thessalonica, but the results were different. In Thessalonica, some of the Jews were persuaded. In Berea, many of the Jews were persuaded. Why the difference? The difference was with those who heard the message. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. Luke tells us very clearly that the Jews of Berea were more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica. We will talk about why he said that in a minute. But first, did you notice that in both Thessalonica and Berea, many Gentiles (Greeks) believed the gospel? It would seem that the Gentiles didn’t have as many roadblocks in their way to prevent them from hearing and believing God’s Word.

The Jews who didn’t believe the gospel in Thessalonica were not willing to listen to Paul’s teaching carefully. They had a test by which Paul’s message had to pass before they would pay attention to it. Here was the test — “Does this teaching agree with what I have always been told?” There are Christians who listen to sermons that way. If you have been well taught, this can be a pretty good grid. But a better test of truth is — Does this teaching agree with the Bible?

The Jews of Thessalonica were not well taught. That is sad. But an even greater problem is that they thought they were well taught because they had received a lot of instruction. Unfortunately, the rabbis who taught them spent more time studying what other rabbis said than in studying the Scriptures themselves.

Our Lord Jesus was constantly correcting the false teachings of his day. In Mark 8:15, Jesus told his disciples, “Be careful . . . Watch out for the yeast [the false teaching and the false ways] of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” When spiritual leaders laced God’s Word with their own ideas of right and wrong, then civil leaders like Herod, were encouraged to do the same with the laws they enacted. The further our spiritual and civil leaders get away from God’s Word by relying on their own thinking, the worse off a society will be. In Mark 7:8 Jesus told the religious and civil leaders of Israel, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” The Israel of Christ’s day was a mess because of this. If Jesus was in the United States today, he would be saying the same thing to many of our religious and civil leaders.

The Jews of Berea were more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica because they really wanted to know what the Bible taught. Therefore they were willing to listen to Paul carefully and then daily check his teachings with the Scriptures themselves. When they did that, they were persuaded by the Holy Spirit that Paul was right and their eyes were opened to the gospel.

Why were many Jews in Berea eager to hear God’s Word, but not many in Thessalonica? It could be that the Jews in Berea had been better taught all along. In Paul’s day, there were pockets of Jews all over the Roman Empire who had faithfully followed the Old Testament Scriptures. These people were quickly won to Christ. Their hearts were right with God; they just needed to hear the rest of the story.

What a great start Paul got at Berea. Unfortunately, no man or town is an island unto itself. Please follow as I read Acts 17:13-15:

When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

Is it not amazing that most of the Jews in Thessalonica were angry when they learned that the Word of God was being preached in Berea. Paul had shown them from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah was to suffer, die and rise again. They could not refute his teaching. All they could do was to try to kill Paul and work to get bad civil laws enacted that would hinder the work of the gospel. Because the civil magistrates in Thessalonica capitulated to expediency and enacted bad policies in their city, it gave unscrupulous lawyers precedence to spread bad policies to Berea. Once bad laws are enacted it is like gangrene in the political system. The poison spreads rapidly. We have some bad laws on the books today. Unscrupulous lawyers are having a field day with them. We need civil leaders who fear God and hate evil, who will put just laws back on the books and get rid of bad laws.

How do we distinguish good laws from bad laws? We need a standard of right and wrong. And is not the Bible that standard? In Washington, D.C. the Ten Commandments are written all over our Supreme Court building because God’s Law was considered the standard of right and wrong. But people in high places want that changed and are willing to use forceful tactics — the rulings of unscrupulous judges — to get their way. Admittedly, Christians do not want to force our views upon others. We want to persuade them. And therefore we can and should be educating people about God’s Word as we live out God’s truths and thus make them attractive (Deuteronomy 4:5-6). This was one of the keys to success for William Wilberforce in England. He exposed people in England to biblical truth. The Bible is like a lion: the best way to defend it is to turn it loose. The more that people’s consciences are exposed to the truths of God’s Word, the better their consciences will function.

This is why certain segments of our population want to get the Bible out of public hearing. They have banned it from our public schools and courtrooms because they realize that God’s Word is like the sun: it radiates light. Our conscience is like the moon: it only reflects the light it is exposed to. The less our conscience is exposed to the truths of God’s Word, the dimmer it grows. Have you noticed how dim our public conscience has grown in certain areas? If the Bible is not the standard of right and wrong, then everyone does what is right in their own eyes. That is always a bad situation for any community of people.

Question: Should Christians be willing to work hard to promote godly civil laws? Of course we should because everyone benefits under godly laws — except law-breakers. And even law-breakers are better off, because they are punished justly and become more motivated to do what is right and shun what is wrong. Everyone suffers under bad civil laws. The citizens of Berea suffered from the bad policies set at Thessalonica. Bad laws are not from God, they are spawned from Satan’s domain of darkness. Does anyone here think that Satan cares about people? Does Satan want what is best for us? In John 8:44, Jesus said of Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

We need people of integrity, who honor God’s Word in our classrooms, our courtrooms, our city councils and certainly in the pulpits of our land.

What Mark Alvis says is only as good as it lines up with God’s Word. I recently received a brochure challenging Pastors to be expository preachers; which means to preach sermons that are driven by the texts of Scripture and not our own imaginations. The following statements are in this brochure: “When the Bible is taught, God’s voice is heard. Whose voice do your people hear? . . . When Christians drink the pure milk of God’s Word, they grow. What are you serving your people? . . . “The Bible is wholly true, totally sufficient and massively potent. Does your preaching reflect this?”

Perhaps my favorite quote, which is directed towards congregations and their pastors, comes from Floyd Doud Shafer: “Rip out his telephone, burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad hand, and put water in the gas tank of his community buggy. Give him a Bible and tie him in his pulpit and make him preach the Word of the living God.”

May God help Union Congregational Church to be like the Bereans, who received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what they were being taught was true. Because the Bereans did this, many of them believed and through them, many others believed as well. Let’s pray.

Sermon text ©2007 Mark C. Alvis
Bible text © as applicable